In this video, we’re gonna take a look at how to install and use Windows Live Writer, a software application that lets you publish content and even update content to your WordPress blog easily.
[evp width=”640″ height=”480″]tutorials/wpvideos/livewriter-install.swf[/evp]
So the first thing you want to do is go to Google.com and type in “Windows Live Writer.” Now, if you have recently installed MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on your PC, then chances are you’ve also installed Windows Live Writer as a bundled software package. But in case you don’t have, you can always go to Google.com, type in Windows Live Writer, and click on Google Search.
And the first such result that you see here is probably the correct one where you will be able to download the Windows Live Writer software. So right here, you can see that this is the Windows Live Writer webpage where you can also read more about Windows Live Writer and what it can do; and most importantly, you see the download button here, so you can click on that to start to download the latest version of Windows Live Writer.
And right here, there’s another screen that basically lets you know what Windows Live Writer is all about, and you just click on the download button here.
So I’m gonna save this application to my computer, and when that’s done, I’m just gonna double-click on it to install the software.
And then, of course, in typical Microsoft style, they would also bundle a lot of software and basically ask you to install all those software into your PC, so if you don’t want all those software, you just uncheck all these items here. Unfortunately, though, Messenger and Windows Live Writer are prebundled and there’s nothing you can do about that, so you can just choose to install both of these software. In my case, it seems that I already have these software programs. So if you’re installing it for the first time, you should see the install button here, and you can just click on install to install Windows Live Writer to your PC. So once that is done, you can just start your software and I’m gonna show you how Windows Live Writer looks like.
So now, you can see how the main screen of the Windows Live Writer looks like. However, before you can add a new Windows Live Writer blog to your Windows Live Writer software, you need to log in to your WordPress dashboard and then click on Settings and click on “Writing.” In order to give Windows Live Writer direct access to your WordPress blog, you have to check these two publishing options here, which is the XML-RPC. It basically enables the WordPress movable type and other publishing protocols. So this would enable direct communication with your WordPress blog and your Windows Live Writer software. And when that’s done, click on “Save Changes.”
So now that that is done, you just open up your Windows Live Writer software, of course, and click on the blogs listing here and click on “Add Blog Account.” Now, by default, Live Writer is designed specifically for Windows Live Spaces which is another type of blog platform. But since you are using WordPress, click on “Other Blog Service” here, and click on Next. And then you need to enter the web address of the blog with the username and password. So I’ve done that, and I’m gonna click on “Remember my Password,” and click on Next.
So now, Windows Live Writer is basically communicating with my WordPress blog to get the default settings, categories, and etc., etc.
Now, what I see here is a prompt by the Windows Live Writer application, which asks me if I want to allow Writer to detect the theme of the blog by publishing a temporary post. This post will be removed immediately. Now, this is important if you want to be able to preview your blog content exactly as it would appear in your WordPress blog, so you need to allow Windows Live Writer to get the CSS-style definitions from your current WordPress theme. So I’ll just click on “Yes.”
Okay, so now that my blog has been set up, and I’m just gonna click on Finish. So you can see that my new blog is already here in the list of all the blogs that I have, and I can easily enter new content and post to my WordPress blog.